Monthly Archives: August 2012

Artprize Piece Done, Done, Done…!

Details of Rooflines #6

and more details of Rooflines# 6

Statement:

My composition, Rooflines # 6 , is a contemporary art quilt. This Rooflines series celebrates my fascination with the architecture of the Frederik Meijer Gardens here in Grand Rapids. The steel beams juxtaposed with the glass windows against the sky and the varying colors of nature contained within the conservatory building provide for a rich study of line, color and shape. I have utilized my hand dyed fabrics as my paint and the free hand cutting of shapes and lines to create this piece. Dense machine quilting adds texture and another dimension for the viewer.

I am done and it is a relief. A few more pieces of paper and then I can celebrate. Artprize starts September 19th and I am very excited to be one of a handful of textile artists to be accepted.

I Must Learn to Shout

The recent issue of the Grand Rapids Magazine had an article in it about the American Quilt Society Show coming to our city August 22-25th. And back in July, they interviewed little old me and my friend Terri Watson for this article.

Very nice to have been interviewed and I didn’t say anything too embarrassing!

Be sure to enjoy upcoming show next week. I can hardly wait and am volunteering a few shifts. They still need volunteers and a short shift will allow you a free daily admittance.

Loving Vermont in the Summer

I’ll miss you, little house in Vermont! It’s always fun.

Wrapping Things Up

I finished machine quilting my Artprize piece last weekend and wanted to sink in to a really long nap. I procrastinated on the last twenty inches of the machine quilting and it just made it more painful. I will leave tomorrow for Michigan and can’t wait to see it all spread out. I don’t have anywhere here to hang it or block it in the way I like to. It is back in it’s ziplock bag for a 15 hour ride home and I feel at this point it could write it’s own little book about it’s journey this summer. 🙂

As my reward, I got out the dyes and, as a friend said, dyed a little more rainbow in my backyard here in VT. And even got them ironed and ready to use this fall.

I tried flat dyeing again as I wanted some really deep colors and wondered if I could get it by flat dyeing rather than over dyeing. It was really messy to clean up but I think it might have worked.

And a few strands of floss for winter stitching.

Even though dyeing is labor intensive, I always feel as if all this color is a reward to me.

A Blue Day

I didn’t realize I had a “blue” day.

Went to pick blueberries with the girls today. The second batch in less than a week and we haven’t frozen any of them!

And then I tried a natural indigo vat again but the samples turned out way too light for me. I will add them to my growing indigo pile at home.

I think they are still pretty though.

And then I found a really small nest that fell out of a tree last night during the rain. Beautiful and intricate.

Just Write

I gave those instructions to myself today. Just write a blog post.

I had expectations that I would have a finished piece today to have something exciting to show you. But the last three days have been brutally hot and I really don’t want to sweat while I sew. ( Not good to sweat on your art that many people will see.) I really hate complaining about the weather but it has been steamy in my little house in the farmland. To have a ginormo quilt on my lap is way too sweaty. No air-conditioning here, folks. So during the day we seek water and cool spaces wherever we can find it .

And I have been dyeing some fabric. Remember when I said I wasn’t going to do that here? Well the truth is that at the last day when I was packing to come here, I dumped a bunch of dyes in a box and shipped it here. I just couldn’t let hot steamy days go without dyeing. Call me irresponsible or call me responsible, this is just the perfect wet studio and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass!

To me, this is THE space I love to dye fabrics in. Why waste a few days of heat? I had the dyes, the space and the heat. I needed only the fabric. So, this gave me the perfect opportunity to try some the Kaufman pimatex which Lisa Call sells. Lisa promptly sent it to me and I am a new convert to to Kaufman pfd pimatex. I have found a new addiction as it dyes beautifully.